Susan Convery
Susan Convery coaches artists in illuminating their authentic artistic voice.
She is a Florida-certified art teacher who taught advanced drawing and painting to high school students at American Heritage in Plantation for 8 years. Susan now guides her private students in portfolio development online and from home.
Susan's students win top awards at national, state, and regional competitions Her student's art portfolios enable them to be accepted, and earn significant scholarships, to Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Brown, Columbia, Wellesley, University of California, Pratt, School of Visual Arts, Maryland Institute College of Art, Otis, Pratt Institute, Rhode Island School of Design, Chicago Art Institute, California College of the Arts, and Savannah College of Art and Design.
Susan’s areas of expertise include watercolor, mixed media, oil paint, pastel, colored pencil, collage, figure drawing, and composition. Susan illustrated two published children’s books and she paints personalized portraits on commission. Her artwork can be found at the Old Sculpin Gallery on Martha’s Vineyard and in local South Florida shows and competitions. Susan is a member of the Martha’s Vineyard Art Association, The Gold Coast Watercolor Society, The Broward Art Guild, the National League of American Pen Women and she is treasurer for the Florida Watercolor Society.
Susan enjoys leading art workshops & art adventures at home, around the country and overseas.
My Artwork:
Who am I? My Artist Statement
I am profoundly visual. Understanding and “seeing” are not separate for me. I want to “see” the world and understand things that cannot be expressed through language. I was raised in a family of creatives and fortunate to have had great high school teachers who believed in my artistic dreams and ambitions and gave me the opportunity to experiment with a variety of forms and media. In high school, I began to delve into the connection between physical and transcendent reality and how to develop a visual language for that experience. Since then I read everything I could find on mysticism and painting technique and I am continuing my research. I started with the guiding question - what is “real” and what is “true”? This has become my lifelong “thread".
I have had the opportunity to live in and travel to many countries. While traveling the world I learned that language and culture are merely windows for our perception of the world. Travel and the study of religion, philosophy, and psychology raised awareness that everyone perceives the same experience differently. Ten people can be in the same place, at the same time, and have an identical thing happen in the same moment - yet all ten will perceive that experience through their own filter. This fascinates me. If there is no absolute, then truth is the artist’s voice as pure perception. What resonates with us, as the viewer, is the purity of that voice, that experience.
This is where teaching comes in. Teaching and learning are the same as Yin and Yang. Yogi Bhajan says, "if you want to learn something you should teach it". Teaching found me when I needed an income to support my family. Teaching allowed me to dig deeper than ever before into technique and expression. It gave me an opportunity to experiment and practice everything I learned. As I connected with my students and helped them express their inner worlds, beautiful things began to happen. Teaching gave me a purpose. My gift, my purpose, is to apply all that I have learned giving my student/artists the visual language they need to fully express their experience of “truth and reality”. I discovered that I am a more gifted teacher than an artist.
I am grounded by my Kundalini Yoga practice. It gives me the strong center to hold space for other artists and to connect with other souls on a deeper level. It provides a daily experience of the metaphysical world, inspirational downloads, as well as, a community of like-minded, magical women who are my role models.
I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity to serve you in attaining your highest artistic expression.
Susan/Jastej Convery
